Don’t get me wrong, I love gizmos. I like the way they allow me to do stuff I’d never even thought of before, or make the stuff I have thought of easier. But every now and then, the practical side of my brain rears up and asks, “Do I really need this? Does it really make my life easier/better/more fun?”
And that’s the conundrum I’m facing while typing this review of Belkin’s Bluetooth Music Receiver (F8Z492) . The company’s website tells me that with this product, I can “play your iPod touch or iPhone music through your home stereo or stand-alone speakers—wirelessly. You’ll get stereo sound and the ability to control your playlist directly from your device from the comfort of your couch.”
We returned from the CEA Line Show having seen some interesting and innovative products. Among them, a simple but effective aide for a common problem we all face at one time or another – trouble sleeping.
At the end of the day, sleep is what I want but thoughts and ideas are what I get. My answer is to meditate. I found that to get to that place of total relaxation it helps me to have the right soundtrack as a guide. Recordings with a binaural tone do the trick for me. It is, however, quite awkward – to try to sleep with earphones stuck in my ears.
A number of years ago (1993) Hollywood released a movie called "Dave" starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver. It was a cute but poignant piece about a man who was a dead ringer for the President and ended up having to take his place in the White House. It's an interesting movie about some of the inner workings of Washington politics interspersed with some delightful comedy. And since this isn't a movie review column, I'll explain what all this has to do with Windows 7 a little later.
Sometimes the tech we look at for both desktop and portable applications is absolutely cutting edge technology. Other times it's a new take on an existing product class or an incremental increase in capability that puts a sharper edge on the tech warriors' Swiss Army knife. In this issue we're going to look at two such sharper edge tools; travel size wireless mice from HP, and the Clear™ USB WiMAX adapter.
Anyone who has a mobile component to their workday has experienced two things while working with their laptop. First is a desire to have something a little more convenient to use than the touchpad, and second, the ability to take a fast Internet connection with them wherever they go.
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